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Burger-Blackmun Relationship: Lessons for Collegiality from the Blackmun Papers, The Missouri Law Review Volume 70 Issue 4 Fall 2005 Article 4 Fall 2005 Burger-Blackmun Relationship: Lessons for Collegiality from the Blackmun Papers, The Duane Benton Barrett J. Vahle Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Duane Benton and Barrett J. Vahle, Burger-Blackmun Relationship: Lessons for Collegiality from the Blackmun Papers, The, 70 MO. L. REV. (2005) Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol70/iss4/4 This Conference is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Missouri Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Benton and Vahle: Benton: Burger-Blackmun Relationship: The Burger-Blackmun Relationship: Lessons for Collegiality from the Blackmun Papers Duane Benton 2 Barrett J. Vahle On March 4, 2004, the Harry A. Blackmun Papers became available to the public at the Library of Congress.3 The Papers shed new light on Justice Blackmun's relationship with Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, providing a case study in collegiality. Before Blackmun's confirmation, an article in Time magazine stated, "No one seems to feel that Blackmun would be subservient to his lifelong friend, Chief Justice Warren Burger.' 4 The Senate appeared to agree, seemingly satis- fied with Blackmun's response to Senator Edward M. Kennedy's direct ques- tion about his relationship with Chief Justice Burger.5 The Associated Press, 6 New York Times, and Wall Street Journalwere, however, less sanguine. 1. Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. 2. Member, Missouri Bar; Law Clerk to Chief Judge Dean Whipple, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri; Law Clerk to Circuit Judge Duane Benton, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 2004-05. 3. All citations to box and folder numbers throughout this article refer to the Harry A. Blackmun Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Throughout this article, in primary material, Harry A. Blackmun is abbreviated "HAB"; Warren E. Burger is "WEB." 4. Judge Harry Blackmun: A Craftsmanfor the Court, TIME, Apr. 27, 1970, at 20, 21. 5. See infra Appendix A. 6. See LINDA GREENHOUSE, BECOMING JUSTICE BLACKMUN: HARRY BLACKMUN'S SUPREME COURT JOURNEY 50 (2005) ("While the Associated Press, in a wire story carried by hundreds of newspapers, stressed Blackmun's 'striking similar- ity in view to his old friend, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger,' the Washington Post had a different emphasis. 'His opinions and reputation indicate that he is a conserva- tive with an independent mind and sensitivity to new ideas,' the Post article said."); Fred P. Graham, Burger and Blackmun: Opinions Similar, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 15, 1970, at 34 (Box 1361, folder 7) ("Judge Blackmun appears strikingly like Mr. Burger in judicial philosophy."); Minnesota Friendof ChiefJustice Burger Termed Leading Candidatefor High Court, WALL ST. J., Apr. 13, 1970, at 5 (Box 1361, folder 7) ("Judge Blackmun is said to be the leading choice mainly because of his close rela- tionship with Chief Justice Burger."). Blackmun's files contain Nina Totenberg's story that he "worries that his close friendship with Chief Justice Warren E. Burger might be misconstrued." Nina Totenberg, Judge Worries About Ties To ChiefJustice: Nixon Nominee Blackmun Is Old Burger Friend; President Is Reasurring, NAT'L OBSERVER, Apr. 1970 (Box 1361, folder 14). Published by University of Missouri School of Law Scholarship Repository, 2005 1 Missouri Law Review, Vol. 70, Iss. 4 [2005], Art. 4 MISSOURI LAW REVIEW [Vol. 70 The conventional wisdom is now clear: the two men were life-long friends until, as colleagues on the Supreme Court, differing ideologies and Burger's ego drove them apart. Woodward and Armstrong wrote in The Brethren: When he first arrived, Blackmun warned Burger that they would be tagged the "Minnesota Twins"...... It took only half a year of vot- ing together before Blackmun's prophecy came true. He was only surprised it had taken so long. Still, it particularly offended him, because it was clear that the Chief was the dominant twin. The notion implied that Blackmun had no judicial mind of his own .... The clerk network had another name for Blackmun: "Hip pocket Harry." Burger, they felt, con- trolled not only his own vote but Blackmun's as well.7 The relationship certainly changed from "hip pocket Harry." In 1974, when Blackmun showed the Chief Justice his revised statement of facts to Burger's original draft in United States v. Nixon,8 "Burger's eyes flashed. He 9 turned and stormed out the door without a word." And when Justice Black-0 mun voted with the more liberal Justices in a 1975 prior-restraint case,' 7. BOB WOODWARD & ScoTT ARMSTRONG, THE BRETHREN: INSIDE THE SUPREME COURT 121-22 (1979). 8. 418 U.S. 683 (1974) superseded by FED. R. EVID. 801(d)(2)(E) (1975). For the basic facts, see WEB Memorandum to the Conference (July 10, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) (enclosing partial draft); HAB to WEB cc Conference (July 12, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) ("With your letter of July 10, you recommended and invited suggestions. Ac- cordingly, I take the liberty of suggesting herewith a revised statement of facts and sub- mit it to you for your consideration. [ ] Please believe me when I say that I do this in a spirit of cooperation and not of criticism. I am fully aware of the pressures that presently beset all of us."); Justice Potter Stewart to WEB cc Conference (July 12, 1974) (Box 190, folder 10) (agreeing with Blackmun); Justice Bill Brennan to WEB cc Conference (July 12, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) (agreeing with Blackmun); WEB Memorandum to the Conference (July 15, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) ("My effort to accommodate every- one by sending out 'first drafts' is not working out. [ 1] I do not contemplate sending out any more material until it is ready."); Justice Thurgood Marshall to WEB cc Conference (July 15, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) (agreeing with Blackmun and others); Law Clerk to HAB (July 18, 1974) (Box 191, folder 2) (summarizing Nixon; "I think that there is no question that the CJ's version [of the facts] is not adequate and perhaps he will either use yours or incorporate heavily."); WEB memorandum to Justices (Aug. 26, 1974) (Box 190, folder 5) (stating that the Court is still unanimous; asking that no one talk to press). 9. WOODWARD & ARMSTRONG, supra note 7, at 321. After the incident, Black- mun wrote the Chief Justice to explain. Id. at 321-22. Woodward and Armstrong say that the confrontation became known as the "Et Tu Harry" story. Id. at 322. 10. See Se. Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546 (1975). https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol70/iss4/4 2 Benton and Vahle: Benton: Burger-Blackmun Relationship: 2005] LESSONS FOR COLLEGIALITY "Burger was aghast. He remarked several times to his clerks that he didn't understand what Blackmun was doing. It had to be ''the influence of Stewart and Brennan. The Chief gave no credit to Blackmun." Later commentators reached the same general conclusion. Following Chief Justice Burger's death in 1995, Finlay Lewis wrote a story entitled Terms of Estrangemen: Burger and Blackmun: The Boyhood Pals Who Thought They Knew Each Other.12 After the release of the Blackmun Papers in 2004, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times published Friendsfor Decades, But Years on the Court Left Them Strangers.13 Days later, Nina Totenberg reported similarly for National Public Radio. 14 Luther Munford, a Blackmun clerk in 1978-79, soon explained: Without question, Blackmun and Burger were childhood friends. One night, Blackmun and his wife invited his clerks to dinner at their apartment. He pulled out an old black-and-white photograph and passed it around. It showed the two as boys. They had taken the picture themselves by rigging a string to the camera and then pulling it as they posed. Almost 60 years later, the trick still brought a smile to Blackmun's face. By 1978, however, Blackmun's problem with Burger was, quite simply, that he thought Burger was way too big for his britches. He told us Burger had made a lot of money in the booming real prop- erty market after he came to the District of Columbia in the 1950s and he lived on an estate in Virginia. Unlike the other justices, he was able to have the court limousine bring him to work each day. Burger had become an afficionado of antiques, fine wines and the English system of barristers, who historically came mostly from that country's upper class. Burger's expansive view of himself showed itself inside the court as well as out. The chief justice, like the others, sat behind the bench in a seat especially made for him. But unlike the others, Burger added a thick pad to his seat that made him look taller. Al- though marble floors had served the court just fine for decades, the chief justice put in a red carpet between the justices' offices. 11. WOODWARD & ARMSTRONG, supra note 7, at 363. 12. Finlay Lewis, Terms of Estrangement: Burger and Blackmun: The Boyhood Pals Who Thought They Knew Each Other, WASH. POST, July 9, 1995, available at 1995 WL 9251334. 13. Linda Greenhouse, Friendsfor Decades, But Years on the Court Left Them Strangers, N.Y. TiMES, Mar. 5, 2004, at AI. 14.
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